Housing advice please!

[MildredMaudeandEnid]

Hello

This is probably going to be a bit long winded so please bear with me!

I adopted Dodger as a new pal for my bereaved Millie about 6 weeks ago. Unfortunately I fell ill and we all had to go stay with my parents for a couple of weeks. All the piggies were fine during this time. We came home last Saturday and a day later, Millie and Dodger seemed to not be getting along (please see my post in the Bonding/Behavior forum for details). This behaviour seems to have settled now and seemed to culminate in a night of chasing and mounting so I assume that the stress of moving combined with Millie coming into season caused some hormone-fueled tensions.

The disagreement seemed to start in the loft so I removed the ramp (they were blocking each other in as only one point of access) which has left them with a 4x2 C&C cage which I feel is a bit cramped. I'm reluctant to reinstate the loft as is in case it sparks another falling out.


Ideally I would like to add a second ramp and extend to a 5x2 base but it's not possible with their current cage as 1) it's on a table and 2) it is a Kavee cage and would cost a fortune for the extra grids as its not compatible with the Amazon ones.

I have another pair of piggies who are in a Amazon grid C&C which would be no bother to expand.


I suppose my question is; would it be a bad idea to swap the cages around? It would just be the frames and I would move each pairs' correx tray/bedding, etc over with them so it smells of them. I don't want to cause them any more stress and upheaval but I don't feel Millie and Dodger's current set up is big enough long term. I would obviously wait a few weeks, possibly until after Millie's next season to do anything to make sure they've settled down properly.

Any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Piggies&buns]

While a 4x2 cage is absolutely fine for a pair of piggies, sometimes they just need more room!

Swapping the grids themselves shouldn’t make any difference to the piggies.
Of course moving them from a 4x2 to a 5x2 is where territories will change and could spark extra dominance - using soiled bedding etc as you say can help

 

[MildredMaudeandEnid]

While a 4x2 cage is absolutely fine for a pair of piggies, sometimes they just need more room!

Swapping the grids themselves shouldn’t make any difference to the piggies.
Of course moving them from a 4x2 to a 5x2 is where territories will change and could spark extra dominance - using soiled bedding etc as you say can help

Other than this recent episode, neither piggy has been particularly dominant. During bonding they just instantly got along and they've shared the loft without any issues up until now. I'm hoping they can go back to how they were before and it's just been a blip. I haven't heard a peep out of them in the last 24 hours.

I'm going to give them a couple more days to settle then try them in the playpen which is about 5x3. I've not been taking them out of the cage while they work out their issues.